The narrator's point of view and the rhetoric of the NARRATIVE SPEECH IN THE HEBREW BIBLE

• DOI: 10.22533/at.ed.929272226108

• Palavras-chave: narrator's point of view; rhetoric of narrative discourse; narrative analysis; narratives from the Pentateuch; sovereignty and legitimacy of power.

• Keywords: narrator's point of view; rhetoric of narrative discourse; narrative analysis; narratives from the Pentateuch; sovereignty and legitimacy of power.

• Abstract:

  This article proposes to address the relationship between the narrator's point of view and the rhetoric of narrative discourse, within the scope of the Hebrew Bible. Biblical exegesis, over several centuries, has not given due attention to the question of the pragmatic configuration of the narrative argument. It is assumed here that the artistic-literary arrangement of the biblical text not only reveals the narrator's point of view about the thematic unit of the narrative, but also constitutes an important tool for dialogue between the narrated world and the world of the modern-day listener-reader of the Scriptures. Therefore, as an empirical exercise, this presupposition will be demonstrated through a brief analysis of the LORD's speech on Mount Sinai, in Ex 19:4-6a, when he gave the preamble to the legislation of Ancient Israel. Therefore, it is proposed that the narrator's point of view about the thematic unity of the exodal narrative is established by the rhetoric of the narrative discourse, which asserts that the legitimacy of the power of the sovereign of Israel is proven by the fair behavior of the speaker.